Private car sale....now being taken to small claims court

arcon5 wrote: »

Your defence is overly long and a lot of its content is either unnecessary or could be summarised.

I agree with you. OP, the courts have a limited time to read and understand the main points of your defence, so it needs to be concise and to the point.

Marktheshark wrote: »

I am afraid your letter of reply to her has shot you straight in the foot.
All she has to stick to is she never mentioned injectors to you and you are as the saying goes, stuffed.

How does that mean the op is stuffed? At worst the judge will know that they cannot both (seller and customer) be right and one might be lying. It does not mean the judge will automatically believe the customer.


To the op:
I suggest you check the initial advert carefully e.g. did you say anything like "in excellent condition" or "in great condition" etc? If you did then the customer may argue that it was not in that condition and so misdescribed. If you did say anything about the condition being very good it does not mean your case is lost. Just that you may have a slightly higher hurdle to meet.

I think your defence seems ok. Although long, in my view, it is sufficiently clear and most of the detail is worth keeping in except for some sentences near the end. (I would omit the paragraph begining "From personal experience .... " as it sounds like you are telling the judge how to do their job, and the sentences "I do hope she goes to a reputable garage ..." and "I hope this will be the end of the matter").

Robbo2305 wrote: »

Hi
I've changed my user name.
So the defence I wrote I know is extremely lengthy but as this is all new to us we just wanted to include all the events and what was said exactly as I remembered it. I'm now waiting for a initial court date as we have recieved notice of allocation to our local court. My next defence if requested, and what we will say in court i can assure you will be short concise and to the point, and I'll take note not be condensing to the judge, not what I meant to do but I can understand how that may sound.
The claimant used the words 'injector gone bad' in her claim form that was sent to us so she can't deny saying that.
My advert had picture of car
Miles
MOT till November 2017
Colour
Petrol
Recall checks done by vauxhall
7 seater
Great family car
£2000 ono
And that was the exact description.

I wouldn't worry about the presentation of your defence. Lawyers are used to reading ring-binders full of papers so your defence is actually brief. I think what is more important is that the information is well ordered, and your case is - it follows a clear timeline. Indeed I would be careful not to exclude too much detail for the sake of brevity as I think that might be a mistake. (You wouldn't want your argument to get lost in the detail, but your argument is very simple - the car was as described and roadworthy when it was sold.)

Yes that's what the safety recall was for at the vauxhall garage. It was checked and fine and the buyer was given the relevant paper work.
Also ....yes my partner had as said she could have put diesel in it and that's what would happen to the injectors! We just didn't know if we should go down the route of mentioning that and blaming it on her with out having evidence of this.
We have not been in contact with the buyer except for one phone call after we recieved a letter from her. We have just filled in the forms sent by the small courts money claims department.